Trading
at Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) was halted by nearly four hours on Sunday as a
major technical glitch made the market operator unable to begin trading at its
usual 10:30 am opening time.
Bangladesh
Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Executive Director Mohammad Saifur
Rahman told BSS that the commission was aware about the technical problem and
was expecting a full report from the DSE authorities about the matter in due
course.
“Due
to a technical issue DSE delayed commencement of trade by 3 hours 50 minutes on
24th May 2015. This delayed start resulted in a shorter trading
period of 1 hour 40 minutes compared to 4 hours of normal trading,” DSE said in
a press statement later on the day.
The
stock exchange also regretted the disruption of trading that caused
inconvenience to all market participants.
DSE
said that the technical issue caused delay in disseminating trade related
information to some brokers beyond acceptable limits, and thus the brokers were
put at a disadvantaged position compared to its peer group.
“In
order to prevent this situation arising, DSE took the decision to delay trading
till all market participants had equal opportunities to trade”, the statement
said.
It
further said that DSE and its international technology partners worked in three
jurisdictions to resolve this issue and to open trading facility as soon as
possible.
The
combined effort of all those involved has resulted in market opening at 2:20 pm
for all brokers, albeit for a truncated trading session of 1 hour and 40
minutes till 4pm.
The
shorter than usual trading session recorded transaction volume of 8.58 crore
shares worth Taka 343.17 crore, which was more than 50 percent lower than the
volume and value of a normal trading session.
The
decline in daily transaction caused fall in the two selective indices, but the
broader DSEX index managed to finish the day marginally up at 4484.62, with
DS30 and DSES closing down at 1682.44 and 1081.40 respectively.
Prices
of 108 stocks advanced on the day against 164 declining stocks, while 28
remained unchanged. Power Grid, SA Port, Rupali Bank, ICB Sonali 1stMF and Saif
Power were the day’s major gainers.
The
major gaining sectors were bank, fuel and power, engineering and miscellaneous
when the major losing sectors were textile, telecom, mutual fund and ceramic.
Among the major lagging securities were Family Tex, Beximco, Zaheen Spin, 7th
ICB and Republic Insurance.
UPGDCL
topped the turnover list followed by KPCL, Saif Power, SA Port, BSCCL, UPGDCL
and Ifad Autos.
Normal
trading DSE will resume tomorrow (Monday) on schedule time at 10:30 am.
Chittagong
Stock Exchange (CSE) began the week at its normal scheduled and closed the
session positive. The general CSCX index finished the day up at 8458.35 though
most of issues traded closed lower. Prices of 128 securities declined on the
day against 80 advancing and 27 static issues.
Some
2.35 crore shares worth Taka 81.32 crore changed hands on the day. (Source:
BSS)